1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a directivity control system, a directivity control method, a sound collection system and a sound collection control method of forming directivity of a sound in a directivity direction oriented from a microphone array apparatus to a prearranged sound position.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, in monitoring systems installed at predetermined positions (for example, ceilings) of factories or stores (for example, retail stores or banks) or public places (for example, libraries), wide angles of view of video data (including still images and moving images, and the same applies hereinafter) of predetermined ranges of monitoring targets have been contrived by connecting a plurality of camera apparatuses (for example, pan-tilt camera apparatuses or omnidirectional camera apparatuses) via networks.
Since the amount of information obtained from monitoring of only videos are restricted anyhow, there have been high demands for monitoring systems obtaining sound data in directions (hereinafter, referred to as “imaging directions”) in which specific subjects are imaged by camera apparatuses by disposing not only the camera apparatus but also microphone array apparatuses.
Here, a control apparatus is known which obtains sound data of a subject present in an imaging direction of a camera apparatus by controlling operations of the camera apparatus and a microphone array apparatus (for example, see JP-A-2012-186551). The control apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2012-186551 is installed in a conference room in which, for example, a TV conference system can be used and controls the operations of the camera apparatus which can be operated in a horizontal direction (pan direction) and the microphone array apparatus which can change a sound collection range.
The control apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2012-186551 changes the sound collection range of the microphone array apparatus based on a distance between the position of the camera apparatus and the position of a subject pictured in an image obtained by the camera apparatus, a pan direction of the camera apparatus, a distance between the position of the camera apparatus and the position of the microphone array apparatus, and a direction of the position of the microphone array apparatus with reference to the position of the camera apparatus.